Neil Lennon said we didn’t deserve to lose 4-1, as we dominated large parts of the game against a team who have lost their last four games (not against Celtic), conceding 14 goals in the process. But oh, Neil, we absolutely deserved to lose by at least that margin.
Our disorganisation is a marvel. Scott managing to start his jump goal-side of a dropping ball and ending up wrong side. Callum playing three onside. Kris A. not committing to block the cross (forgiven, trying to cover two positions), Chris J. attempting to intercept with the wrong foot (forgiven, fitness). Hatem reliving his Ferencvaros highlights. Full backs who are never back and produce few assists; there is no defensive midfield, unless you count the goalkeeper who feels the need to leave his box and play that position, just a midfield of nomads.
The team is a collection of individuals unencumbered by a workable strategy. Opposition managers have their game plan written: defend deep, play on the counter and put numbers forward at set-pieces. If we could defend counter-attacks and corner kicks, we would be having a legendary season, but we can’t, so everyone looks awful.
In sport, if you have evident fatal flaws and persistently fail to resolve them, you deserve every setback that comes your way. It is hard to recall a Celtic team that deserved to lose more. Let me give you a cheery prediction, you will soon forget about last night, as there is worse to come.
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Pingback: There is worse to come Paul67 - Celtic FC News Aggregation
Not a long queue for the podium today
There is worse to come ??? Completely unacceptable. Get. Him. Out. Now !
Copied from last article:
I can’t give up yet on the 10, need to know its achievable with right decisions being made. But that control is out of our hands which just adds to the frustration
I might be clutching at straws and yes Zombies are stronger team this season and addressed the weaknesses that lead to below results last year. But surely if they turned it around, we can too. Not that I think NL is the man to do it.
22 January 2020 Rangers 1–0 St Mirren
26 January 2020 Hearts 2–1 Rangers
29 January 2020 Rangers 2–0 Ross County
1 Feb 2020 Rangers 0–0 Aberdeen
5 Feb 2020 Rangers 2–1 Hibernian
12 Feb 2020 Kilmarnock 2–1 Rangers
16 Feb 2020 Rangers 1–0 Livingston
23 Feb 2020 St Johnstone 2–2 Rangers
4 March 2020 Rangers 0–1 Hamilton Academical
8 March 2020 Ross County 0−1 Rangers
Thanks, I feel better now😩
Surely moves afoot then ?.
One of the biggest concerns from last night was that it was not a shock…
Does he mean we’re selling in January, or just that we continue with our Chemical Ali coach till May?
Cryptic Paull..do explain please, todays not the day for riddles
The big fix is in?
Just when I thought I couldn’t feel any worse paul comes out with this article
One of the things, and there are many, that I can’t get my head around with Neil’s recent excuses, and let’s face it that’s what they are…
Is – We were good for the first ten minutes – We were excellent the last twenty minutes…
Lenny seems to have forgotten many of the traits that make you successful in football, why that happens to a person I don’t know… but I’m sure he hasn’t forgotten a football match is 90mins + injury time long.
Baffling
Hail Hail
CELTIC40ME:
Well today should be a pleasent change for you as I’m having a chat with fellow Celtic fans and praising the latest blog from our host.
I’ve known Paul a LONG time. And he knows the total respect I hold him in as a man and as a Celtic supporter. He also knows that I think he sometimes pulls his punches when it comes to criticism. But I’ve always understood that it’s, by and large, been positive for this community, the one on here, that Paul does have the direct line … we’ve all read “board thinking” in his pieces at times, and thus been able to develop a more complete understanding of what’s going on behind the scenes.
In short, I have the utmost respect for Paul and this blog … which is why, when I disagree with him, I do it on here and not on The CelticBlog itself. I respect that guy and this site enough to keep my criticisms in-house, here, amongst the Family.
And today his piece is excellent, and if you’ve been following him as long as I have – and that’s a long, long time – you’d know exactly why it’s a big deal.
Paul should, with all due respect, stop talking in riddles and say what he actually thinks.
failure to do this results in a million questions about what his “message’ means.
Things will get worse? So we will lose more games?
Things will get worse? lenon will walk and Kennedy will get the job?
Some clarity, honesty and bravery required maybe?
Think Paul’s alluding to Neil’s not going anywhere soon?
The support are valuable to the PLC but not valued
That’s today’s lesson
THE BATTERED BUNNET on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 12:45 PM
‘Not a long queue for the podium today’
###
Confusion in the ranks about the location of the article.
Parallels with what is going on in the boardroom and on the pitch are too obvious to need pointing out.
DAVID66 on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 12:44 PM
No New article yet??
Is Paul waiting on some news??
Interim manager perhaps…..
D :)
——————-
Damn it
D :)
An article that could have been written by the GB. seems you have given up Paul and that you know Neil is going nowhere. If true then it truly is despairing.
The man is spent. He has a team who are not physical or aggressive. Passive is the word i would use. Easily bulllied and easily deflated.
Tactically not clinical and appalling at defending. Has been thus all season with no sign of improvemnent. Neil thinks its merely a bit of bad luck and things will come right.
They wont under Neil.
Leagues gone, depressing though that is there is absolutely not one indicator that this can be turned around, not on current trajectory. Europe was gone before last night. What is baffling is how a team with energy, drive and directness and that is what Neil brought after Rodgers sideways football, regressed to sideways football and then into utter apathetic jelly. I am not calling this amateur is honestly I have seen amateur sides with better discipline.
We have no leadership on the pitch and while Neil is talking all the flak I fear others are hiding behind it, I have a lot of time for Lenny he took on the challenge of succeeding Rodgers and delivered, the side look decent at the end of last season, but this is now night and day, its cataclysmic and yes I remember the bad old days. Neil has to go, not because I think he’s entirely at fault or that I think he’s suddenly a bad coach, but because something very badly needs to change and I dont think it should stop there.
I had just about given up on Paul67 telling it as it is. Without naming names, the article is clearly aimed at the manager and his coaches.
Now then, is it too much to hope for a piece on the bigger failings of the board?
I really don’t know how to interpret todays article but I’ll try.
Paul67 you are obviously in vast majority camp of supporters that want this management team to go. But you believe NL & others will not be leaving anytime soon, so get ready for worse to come?
I hope its not a cryptic message of a greater problem coming down other than management changes.
Agreed Paul. I think everything is in jeopardy at the moment. And even if by some miracle we go on a run of wins (draws are more likely) it’s hard to see us beating rangers at ibrox or even at Parkhead. Lennon has not learned from previous defeats. He thinks it’s all down to certain individuals finding form on the day. It’s great when they do but you can’t rely on it and anyway individual magic complements a team’s tactical performance it doesn’t make it unnecessary. Anyway we will all know for certain fairly soon whether or not the season is a write-off.
There is worse to come?
Good grief.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to give up glue.
I genuinely don’t believe Paul IS talking in riddles today.
I think, in fact, that he’s been quite clear. He doesn’t believe the manager can turn this around, he doesn’t believe that there will be a dramatic enough improvement in form to make things better, he doesn’t think the board is going to act, for whatever reason, until there is a disaster of such epic size and scale that it makes the situation impossible to ignore far less deny.
And Paul is not happy about that.
I think he’s said what needed to be said. If you want the guy to speak in more clear language – Lennon should go and the board’s failure to act means they shoulder the blame for what goes wrong now – he’s clearly not going to do that, but for me, he’s made it plain eough.
Paul’s not permitted to spill the beans, but I’m not constrained by any obligations of confidence.
The script is that Lenny’s being replaced by Jeane Freeman.
So nothing changes then.
Greeeeeat just what the doctor ordered.
Here is my prediction, we will win on Sunday and win a few games then the huns will beat us and it will definitely be teas oot.
Too late by then and the board will come to the rescue and appoint a manager and say we gave Neil every chance but look what happened.
They are not doing him any favours.
Or everything works out swimmingly but we would need a massive turnaround by everyone at the club for that to happen.
I hope its the latter but….
D :)
I am sure the things will get worse is not entirely about on field matters, maybe the majority/major shareholders have had enough, a buyer lined up , the buyer has only one outcome in mind to make money, and, as much as possible.
Not sure how this is different from what we have at the moment though, and this shareholding situation was caused by the way McCann sold his shares, they immediately went to rich individuals who are happy to be known as major shareholders or owner of Celtic FC but allow the club to be run by a control freak.
Maybe I’m mistaken but wasn’t Paul fervently opposed when Keane’s name was in play after Brendan left? Could it be?
Paul 67
But yesterday was a dead rubber 😫
BHOY FROM THE BOYNE on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 12:55 PM
‘I really don’t know how to interpret todays article but I’ll try.’
###
How about the Board want Neil Lennon gone, but for reasons we can only speculate on, would prefer him to resign than be sacked, so they’ll use whatever channels they can to exert as much pressure as possible?
The only way a managerial change could be worse is if any replacement is of such low quality that it only enrages the fans further.
There are two appointments which would do that for me amongst the names being thrown about.
Gordon Strachan
Malky MacKay.
The first would be a shocker, a retrograde step that would make Lennon’s appointment (which, of course I venomously opposed) seem like genius.
The second would be an unpardonable disgrace which would be shatter any remaining hopes of ten in a row and at the same time be such an appalling step in terms of our moral standing that not one person in the Celtic boardroom would deserve to survive it.
TBB
Morgan Freeman surely 🤔
Mmmm…. Sounds ominous…… WGS it is then…. After the next debacle…….. Harking back to the goalkeeping situation…. I doubt very much Barkas was a lennon pick…. In fact I’m sure he wanted Joe Hart after forster changed his mind….
This is all on the fans. We just haven’t kept the faith enough.
More positive thinking our part and we wouldn’t be experiencing this routine ritual humiliation.
It’s not at all the club’s fault for hiring and retaining a 3rd rate manager no-one else will employ in the future.
Hi all.
Thought I’d wait a bit before offering my valueless tuppence on the game.
At 8pm last night (GMT) I wanted
– the manager to consider his position
– all loanees (incl Laxalt) to be returned to their parent clubs in January
– the club to write off this season and start planning for the future
The 4-1 defeat last night doesn’t change anything in relation to the league. No SPFL points were dropped.
I enjoyed Auldheid’s take last night – I believe we simply have to get our best players back playing together.
Concerns if Neil remains?
Absolutely. I think Neil’s tactical approach is out of date.
Allegedly – Andre Villas-Boas’ dossier to his boss (17½ years ago) called out the one weakness that Porto could use to defeat us in Seville.
Slow transition from attack to defence.
Gaining an edge at transition has become a staple of tactical thinking in world football.
I watch a lot of football. From what I can see Celtic do this badly compared to other clubs in Europe.
I think it comes from having 3 roving midfielders in a team who take the ball in to close contact high risk engagements – when it breaks down the onus is on just six players to set the initial defensive shield
– our back four (with high full backs)
– an aging Brown and a tired McGregor
But what do I know?
Risks in replacing Neil?
The obvious one – who (who was any good) would come in and give us a chance to salvage the season?
Not a cut and dried decision.
PS – I still have hope for this season.
Longer term? Big change needed.
Hail hail
Keep The Faith
“It’s too easy to criticize a man when he’s out of favor, and to make him shoulder the blame for everybody else’s mistakes.” –Leo Tolstoy
HH
A bit weird for Paul to say worse is to come.
If Pedro & Desmond believe worse is to come they are only postponing the inevitable by delaying taking decisive action now.
Then again some of Paul’s previous predictions were quite a bit wide of the mark, so I won’t be losing any sleep by the worse to come remarks.
Our team can’t defend, our midfield is soft & provides no protection, our defenders make bad individual mistakes and our Keepers are poor.
We need a new Keeper January window, in the meantime we need to survive until January without losing any more ground in the SPFL.
We need to play players who are hungry and will burst a gut for us, Henderson is one name that comes to mind, Turnbull surely has to be an improvement as well.
Our defenders primary role should be to defend.
If we win scrappy games one nil between now & January that will do for me.